Erle Stanley Gardner, himself an attorney, helped create the hard-boiled
genre in the 20's & 30's, when, along with Dashiell Hammett and
Carroll John Daly, he published his stories in the pulp magazine Black
Mask. Then in 1933 he created Perry Mason for The
Case of the Velvet Claws. Some 80 further Perry Mason adventures
followed, most serialized in the Saturday Evening Post. With about 200
million copies sold in thirty languages, popular radio serials and the
long running TV Series beginning in 1957, Perry Mason is one of the most
popular mystery series of all time. Gardner was made a Grand Master
of the Mystery Writers of America in 1962.

Gardner followed a simple, but surefire formula. Perry's clients,
mostly women, were wrongly accused, but DA Hamilton Berger was out to get
them. Perry, along with his loyal secretary Della Street and private
Detective Paul Drake, was forced to cut corners to solve the cases before
his clients could have a murder rap pinned on them. Despite his willingness
to play fast and loose, Perry is essentially honest, as he tells Della
in the Baited Hook:

Lots of lawyers go into court with a case founded
on false testimony. Sometimes they make it
stick. Sometimes they don't. Personally,
I've never dared to take the risk. Truth is the most
powerful weapon a man can use, and if you practice
law the way we do, it's the only weapon
powerful enough to use.

If you've never read on of the Perry Masons they are well worth your
time. You can always find old copies of them at local book sales
and it appears that many of them are still in print.